Civic Engagement among
American Catholics, Especially the Post-Vatican II Generation

By
James
D. Davidson, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Purdue University

page 8
of 9

Plan of Analysis

First, I report how many of
today’s Catholics are involved in the public square and compare that with the
level of Catholics’ civic activity in 1955.Next, I examine the types of civic groups Catholics are most/least
involved in.Third, I examine
generation, gender, income, parish membership, and commitment to the Church to
see their relationship with civic engagement for all Catholics and especially
for post-Vatican II Catholics.These
analyses indicate the extent to which these influences contribute to engagement
overall and within the generation that represents the wave of the future in

American Catholicism.Finally, I estimate the relative importance of these five
variables for Catholics generally and for post-Vatican II Catholics in
particular.

Findings

Table
1 shows that 62 percent of today’s Catholics belong to no civic
organizations.Twenty-one percent
participate in one group; 17 percent belong to two or more groups.11Table 1 also compares today’s
membership rate with the rate recorded in

the 1955 national study.The 1999 rate of civic engagement is somewhat higher than the
rate recorded fifty-four years earlier, when 69 percent of Catholics
participated in no groups, 17 percent participated in one group, and 14
percent belonged to two or more groups.

Table
1

Catholic
Membership in Voluntary Associations, 1955-1999 (percent)

Study

Year

None

One

Two+

Davidson

1999

62

21

17

Wright
and Hyman

& Hausknecht

1955

69

17

14

Table
2 indicates the types of groups Catholics are currently involved in.Ten percent are in religious/Catholic
groups.The Knights of Columbus is
mentioned most often (5 percent), followed by Bible study groups (1.4 percent),
“church groups” (.9 percent), and the Altar Society (.8 percent).Another 10 percent of Catholics are in a
variety of groups coded as "other.”This category includes a combination of religious and secular
organizations (see section on “research design”), but there is no way to tell
how frequently each group was mentioned by respondents.Seven percent of Catholics are in
fraternity/sorority groups, especially women’s clubs (1.5 percent) and the Elks
(1.2 percent).Five percent are in
sports/fitness groups.Unspecified
sports and fitness groups are listed by 2.9 percent of Catholics.12Three percent are in education/cultural
groups, especially the PTA (1.3 percent).Two percent are in political/volunteer groups.Boy

Scout and Girl Scouts are mentioned most often,
followed by volunteer groups such as volunteer firefighters).Only one percent of Catholics said they are
in business groups.

Table 2 also shows the
extent of each generation's involvement in each sphere. Overall, the
pre-Vatican II generation is a bit more actively involved than both the Vatican
II and the post-Vatican II generations (whose overall rates of involvement are
quite similar to one another).Fifty-seven percent of pre-Vatican II Catholics say they

belong to no civic groups, compared to 63 percent of
the Vatican II generation and 64 percent of the post-Vatican II
generation.The biggest generational
difference centers on involvement in religious/Catholic groups.Pre-Vatican II Catholics are more involved
in religious groups and activities (19 percent vs. 10 percent for Vatican II
Catholics and only 6 percent for post-Vatican II Catholics).13As Putnam has shown, there has been a

big decline in membership in the Knights of Columbus
(from 11 percent among pre-Vatican II Catholics to only one percent among
post-Vatican II Catholics), but there also are noticeable declines in other
“church groups” as well (from 2.4 percent to .6 percent).I find no area where there has been an
increase in membership in religious/Catholic organizations.

Other generational
differences are smaller but, when combined, almost cancel out the differences
in religious activity.The pre-Vatican
II generation is a bit more active in fraternity and sorority groups (9 percent)
than the other two generations.The
Vatican II generation is most active in “other” groups (11 percent).The post-Vatican II generation is most
involved in sports/fitness groups (6 percent), education/cultural groups (4
per-cent), and political/volunteer groups (3 percent).The Vatican II and post-Vatican II

generations were a bit more involved in business
groups than the pre-Vatican II generation.

Table
2

Types
of Civic Engagement for Total Sample and by Generation (percent)

Generation

Activity

TotalSample

Pre-
Vatican II

Vatican
II

Post-Vatican
II

None

62

57

63

64

Religious/
Catholic

10

19

10

6

Other

10

9

11

9

Fraternity/
Sorority

7

9

5

7

Sports/
Fitness

5

4

4

6

Sports/
Fitness

3

1

4

4

Political/
Volunteer

2

.4

2

3

Business

1

.3

1

1

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

Table
3 indicates that men and women are more similar than different.Women are twice as likely to be involved in
fraternity/sorority groups, and men are more likely to

belong to sports/fitness groups.Otherwise, the genders were quite similar in
the extent and nature of their civic engagement.There also are relatively small differences between post-Vatican
II men and women.Except for the fact
that young adult women are more involved in fraternal/sorority groups and men in
sports/fitness groups, the similarities between young men and young women
outweighed the differences.

Table
3

Civic
Engagement by Gender for Total Sample and Post Vatican II
Generation (percent)

Total
Sample

Post-Vatican
II
Generation

Activity

Male

Female

Male

Female

None

62

62

64

64

Religious/
Catholic

11

9

5

6

Other

9

10

9

8

Fraternity/
Sorority

5

9

5

10

Sports/
Fitness

7

2

9

3

Education/
Cultural

2

4

4

5

Political/
Volunteer

3

2

3

2

Business

1

1

1

1

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

Table 4 shows that the
higher one's income, the more likely one is to participate in virtually all
types of civic activities.Although the
differences between low- and middle-income people are smaller, there are sizable
differences between these two income groups and high-income Catholics. Table 4
also indicates that the effects of income are in the same direction but even
greater in magnitude among post-Vatican II Catholics.High-income post-Vatican II Catholics are much more involved in
civic groups and activities than low- to -middle income members of this
generation.They are noticeably more
involved in religious/Catholic groups, other groups, sports/fitness groups, and
educational/cultural activities.Middle- and high-income Catholics also are more involved in
political/volunteer groups.There are
no appreciable differences in the areas of business and fraternity/sorority
groups.

Table
4

Civic
Engagement by for Total Sample and Post-Vatican II Generation
(percent)

Total
Sample

Post-Vatican
II
Generation

Below$30,000

$30,000$74,999

$75,000or
More

Below
$30,000

$30,000$74,999

$75,000
or More

Activity

None

70

63

43

75

66

40

Religious/
Catholic

10

10

14

6

3

13

Other

8

10

12

5

9

14

Fraternity/
Sorority

6

6

9

6

8

7

Sports/
Fitness

4

5

9

5

5

12

Education/
Cultural

2

2

8

3

4

9

Political/
Volunteer

1

3

5

1

4

5

Business

.3

2

1

1

2

--

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

Overall,
parishioners are more active in civic groups than non-parishioners (see Table
5).Although 75 percent of
non-parishioners belong to no civic groups, only 56 percent of parishioners are
without civic commitments.Not surprisingly,
parishioners are much more involved than non-parishioners in religious/Catholic
activities.But they also are more
involved in other groups (34 percent vs 24 percent), especially in
fraternity/sorority groups.Essentially
the same pattern holds true for post-Vatican

Catholics, though parish membership has less impact
on their religious/Catholic activity than it does among older Catholics. Young
adult parishioners are ten times as likely to be

active in religious/Catholic groups, four times as
likely to be in political/volunteer groups, more than twice as likely to be in
fraternity/sorority groups, and almost twice as likely to be in other
groups.Non-parishioners, on the other
hand, are more involved in business groups.

Table 6 indicates a positive
relationship between commitment to the Church and involvement in civic
activities.As I expected, the
strongest connection is between commitment and involvement in
religious/Catholic activities.Only
four to six percent of Catholics with low to medium levels of commitment are
active the religious/Catholic, compared to 31 percent of Catholics who are high
in commitment.Catholics of medium to
high levels of commitment also are more active in fraternities and sororities,
but less active in sports/fitness groups.There are no appreciable differences in other areas. Commitment to the
Church also is linked to involvement in religious/Catholic activities and
fraternity/sorority activities among post-Vatican II Catholics.Post-Vatican II

Catholics who are medium to high in commitment to
the Church are less involved in sport/fitness and educational/cultural
activities.Other differences are
small.

Table
6

Civic
Engagement by Commitment to the Church for Total Sample and
Post-Vatican II Generation (percent)

Total
Sample

Post-Vatican
II
Generation

Commitment

Commitment

Activity

Low

Medium

High

Low

Medium

High

None

72

68

40

69

66

43

Religious/
Catholic

4

6

31

--

5

27

Other

9

9

12

8

9

6

Fraternity/
Sorority

1

8

8

--

9

11

Sports/
Fitness

8

5

3

11

5

5

Education/
Cultural

5

3

4

7

4

4

Political/
Volunteer

2

2

2

3

3

5

Business

2

1

1

2

1

--

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

Finally, I compare the data
in tables 2 through 6 to estimate the relative importance of these five variables
for all Catholics.There is a 10 point
difference between highly committed Catholics and Catholics who are low in
commitment to the Church; a seven point gap between high and low
income Catholics; a six point gap between parishioners and non-parishioners; a
four point gap between pre-Vatican II and post-Vatican II Catholics; and a two
point gap between men and women.When I
isolate

the post-Vatican II generation, once again
commitment to the Church is the most important influence (a 10 point gap).It is followed, once again, by income (a
nine point gap), parish membership (five points), and gender (two points).